The New American Splendor Anthology
Oh look, a trendsetter! Which might not be a good thing, because nobody since has done the “nothing to see here” story better than Harvey Pekar. He’s probably most famous for his run-ins with David Letterman, basically taking the show over from the guy on a few occasions. The stories in this large volume mostly aren’t stories at all, at least not in the conventional sense. Just daily, mundane happenings. That doesn’t mean that this book is bad, because it’s a great read. That’s mostly through the skill of Pekar (he has a whole crew of artists who illustrate different parts of the book), who makes you care about little things like him finding a long out of print jazz record, or the walk to work in the morning. Simple, honest stories, this is autobiography at its finest.